Black Hole, on the 20th of June, 1757. It was erected at the expense of Mr. Holwell and the survivors, "the bodies of the 'victims were thrown into the ditch of the fort." This monument, though erected at the expense of individuals, was pulled down by the order of the Marquis of Hastings, on the ground, that it served to remind the natives of our former humiliation. As the remark has often been made, that Indian patronage has been a family one, and that the same names occur year after year, we append here the names of those as inscribed on the monument, which was erected to them, who perished one century ago in the Black Hole; but few persons are in the Company's service now, of the same name, which seems to indicate that patronage has taken another channel :—

Edwd. Eyre, and Wm. Baillie, Esqrs.; The Revd. Jervas Bellamy; Messrs. Jenks, Reevely, Law, Coats, Nalicourt, Jebb, Torriano, E. Page, S. Page, Grub, Street, Harod, P. Johnstone, Ballard, N. Drake, Carse, Knapton, Gosling, Dod,and Dalrymple; Captains Clayton, Buchanan, and Witherington; Lieuts. Bishop, Hays, Blagg, Simpson, and J Bellamy; Ensigns Paccard, Scott, Hastings, C Wedderburn, and Dumbleton; Sea Captains Hunt, Osburn, and Purnel; Messrs. Carey, Leech, Stevenson, Guy, Porter, Parker, Caulker, and Bendol, and Atkinson, who, with sundry other inhabitants, military and militia, to the number of 123 persons, were, by the tyrannic violence of Surajud Daula, Suba of Bengal, suffocated in the Black Hole Prison of Fort William, in the night of the 20th day of June, 1756, and promiscuously thrown the succeeding morning into the ditch of the Ravalin of this place. This monument is erected by their surviving fellow-sufferer, J. Z. HOL

WELL.

The Old Fort was called Fort William, because built A. D. 1692, in the reign of William the Third, the year in which the French at Chandernagore, and the Dutch at Chinsurah, built theirs. Two years previously the Governor and Members of Council at Bombay were made to walk through the streets of that city with irons round their necks. The Burdwan insurrection of 1696 originated it. The walls were very strong, being made of brick, with a mortar composed of brick-dust, lime, molasses, and hemp, a cement as strong as stone. In 1819, when the fort was pulled down to make for the Custom House, the pick-axe or crow-bar was of no avail, gun-powder was obliged to be resorted to, so strong were the buildings. In early days it was garrisoned by 200 soldiers, chiefly employed in escorting merchandise, or in attending

way

*150 were crowded into a room 18 feet by 14; 22 of these came out alive-for a full account of the Black Hole see Holwell's Tracts or Broome's History of the Bengal Army, a work of sterling value.

+ Suraj-a-Daula has, we think, been too severely blamed for the catastrophe of the Black Hole, the incarceration was the work of his underlings; his orders were simply to keep the prisoners secure, and when they complained, no man ventured to break the sleep of an Eastern despot. After all, Calcutta suffered far less injury from its capture by the Moors, than Madras did in 1746, when taken by Lally, and the French, who totally demolished all the public buildings.

Perspective View of Fort William in the Kingdom of Bengal, belonging to the East Insta Company of England.

on Rajahs, who, like the chieftains in the castled crags of the Rhine, levied tolls on all boats ferrying up or down the river! The Old Fort extended from the middle of Clive-street to the northern edge of the tank. About 1770 it was used as a church and a jail, and as the depôt for the Company's medicines. There is a sketch of it in an old Number of the Universal Magazine, which we have had re-produced in outline. Doubtless the foot itself is correctly delineated, although the artist must have drawn upon his imagination for the hills in the back-ground.'

The Old Fort served like the feudal castles, to form the nucleus of the town (as in England all these towns, whose names end in caster, were originally Roman camps,) the natives meeting with protection, and enjoying privileges in trade, soon settled down in Suttenutty and Govindpur.

St. John's Church, alias the old Cathedral, was opened on Easter Sunday, 1787. Previous to Bishop Middleton's arrival, it was called the New Church, to distinguish it from the Old Church, which is the oldest Anglo-episcopal church in Calcutta. With this building may be dated the commencement of the era of churchbuilding. Calcutta was rising to its title of a City of Palaces; the Supreme Council had called for plans of a church, and Warren Hastings felt, that the metropolis ought to have a suitable place for religious worship. As in 1774 Calcutta had "a noble play-house-but no church," service was held in a room next to the Black Hole. A Church Building Committee was organised in 1783; its first Committee Meeting was attended by its zealous patron, Warren Hastings, and his Čouncil; they found 35,950 Rs. had been subscribed, 25,592 Rs. additional were given by a resource then popular in Calcutta -by lottery. A Hindu, Nabakissen, presented, in addition to assigning over the burying ground, a piece of ground, valued at 30,000 rupees; the Company gave 3 per cent. from their revenues; the rest was raised by voluntary contributions. We have never had in India such an inauguration of a church. On the day when the foundation stone was laid, the acting Governor gave a public breakfast, and then, along with the chief Government servants, went in procession to the scene of the ceremonial.* Charles Grant despoiled Gaur of some of

This church called out the voluntary principle very rapidly—Mr. Davis undertook the ornamenting the church; a barrister, Mr. Hall, drew up the contracts gratuitously. Wilkins, the orientalist, superintended the moulding of the stones prepared at Benares,-the East India Company gave 12,000 Rs. for providing communion plate, velvet, bells; and besides 14,394 Rs. subsequently from the Government of Bengal, Earl Cornwallis gave 3,000 Sa. Rs. Zoffani painted the altar piece for it gratis. All the Apostles were taken from life, and represented persons then living in Calcutta. Old Tulloh, the Auctioneer, who came out in 1784, sat for Judas without knowing it.

its finest marble and freestone, the new church took three years in building, and Earl Cornwallis opened it on the 24th of June, 1787, thus wiping away the reproach. The Musalmans, during the short period they held Calcutta, in 1757, showed a different zeal, for they erected a mosque within the Old Fort, having pulled down other buildings to make room for it. Previous to 1787, divine service was performed in a small room of the Old Fort, "a great disgrace to the settlement; the site was occupied by the old burial ground which had existed there for a century previously; when the bones were rooted out of the graves to make a site for this church, it created a strong indignation among 'the Musalmans, who would not do it to their bitterest enemy." The bones were, we believe, removed to the new burial ground; the "house of prayer was not the house of sepulture," and the tombs of the following persons were preserved-Hamilton, Charnock and Watson. The oldest burial recorded is that of Captain Barton, 1693. Charnock's widow was interred in the tomb built by himself, before which he used to sacrifice a cock on the anniversary of her death.

This burial ground was once "in the environs of Calcutta, as the new burial ground is now without the boundaries of the town." In 1802 the old tottering tombs were removed. Most of the old tablets were cut from stone procured at St. Thome, near Madras.

The vestry meeting of St. John's was long looked upon as a scene, where the laity gave their opinion and votes on church matters. The Governor-General, Earl Cornwallis, attended the first vestry meeting, in 1786. This vestry has charitable funds at its disposal, arising from legacies left by General Martine, Baretto and Weston, yielding in interest 15,000 Rs. annually.

We seldom see in the compound the train of carriages, palki-gharis and palankins, without thinking on the revolution that has taken place in manners. When the foundation stone was laid in 1784, the Governor and the principal inhabitants of Calcutta walked from the old Court House to take part in the solemnity; at the consecration they contributed 3,943 Rs. to a charitable object, that of a Free School; and previous to this period, the Governor and heads of Government, used to walk in solemn procession every Sunday to the first church, erected at the west end of the Writers' Buildings, which was demolished in 1756. While we are adopting the absurd custom of dressing in black in hot weather, we have almost renounced the good old English habit of walking. Certainly, the exercise of lolling in a carriage, benefits the doctor and